Washington, July 5 : Two men dressed in dark clothes walked up to the gate of the Indian consulate in San Francisco on July 2, poured some kind of inflammable liquid on it from a container and set it on fire in a stunning breach of security as the same facility.

The fire department put out the fire before it could spread.

No one was injured in the incident because of the timing of the incident, none of the staff was at hand and it was too early for public dealings. Indian officials took up the incident locally with San Francisco authorities, the California government and, eventually, President Joe Biden's administration.

“The US strongly condemns the reported vandalism and attempted arson against the Indian Consulate in San Francisco on Saturday (July 1), ” State Department spokesman Mathew Miller said in a tweet early Tuesday.

"Vandalism or violence against diplomatic facilities or foreign diplomats in the US is a criminal offense, ” he added.